Music Production

It’s yet again the time of year to batten down the proverbial hatches for Black Friday chaos. Thankfully, the internet makes the whole daunting task of taking advantage of post-Thanksgiving sales a lot easier, what without the stabbings and trampling. We’ve put together a list of some of the Black Friday Sales we’ve found for video game soundtracks, game audio production software and gear, and anything else game music related. (Disclosure: Some products may include affiliate links)

You can also “Build Your Own Bundle“, with 20% off the second plugin you choose, 30% off the 3rd – 5th plugins and 40% off the 6th plugin and beyond! With so many plugins on sale, it’s worth taking a look at for anyone looking to pad their audio software repertoire.

The sale does not have a expiration date, but will likely only last this week at best, so nab those plugins while you can!

With the late summer release date quickly approaching for the upcoming Harebrained Schemes BattleTech, we took some time to talk to composer Jon Everist his work on the music for the game. He has also composed music for the games Shadowrun: Dragonfall, Shadowrun: Hong Kong, Necropolis and Planetstorm: Fallen Horizon which recently came to Android. In the interview the composer shares details about his musical background, how he approached scoring Battletech, working with the Budapest Scoring Symphony and more. Read on for our full interview:

Greybox, has just released their second developer video for RiME, an upcoming game for XBOX One, PS4 and Nintendo Switch. In the video the developers discuss the art and design of the game, as well as the music and audio design. The video runs just under 10 minutes, and the discussion about the game’s music begins at 4:56. The developers talk about the game’s island as a character that tells the story of the game. In the video the music is described as a masterpiece that conveys the story arc and in game relationships. They also describe the music as having thematic adaptions to the player’s actions, and that the music ‘completes’ RiME.

David Garcia the composer is shown in the video offering some thoughts on his approach to creating the music. On April 6, 2017, Greybox also posted an excerpt of David Garcia’s score titled “Alone in the Light” which you can listen to below. There is also a link on the official YouTube video to download the sheet music.

If you are reading this site you obviously have a keen interest in game music, you may even be a game composer yourself.

However, I suspect there is also a reasonable percentage of readers who are composers outside of games, want to get involved, but don’t really know how to get started. Either that or a fear lingering fears are holding them back.

Whenever I’ve spoken to composers looking at getting into games, apart from the problem of actually finding work (which is more of a practical issue), they nearly always have three fears that they mention:

What if I’m not a gamer?

What if I don’t know anything about interactive music?

I’m not sure my music is not good enough and I first need to learn [insert skill, software or strange music theory lesson].

These concerns are natural, and indeed I had these concerns myself when I started.

For those looking to expand their knowledge about the field of audio and music, the task to find good information can be daunting. The internet is full of message boards, forums, and tutorials about how to create, mix, master, and implement audio. It can be difficult to filter through the massive amount of information to find useful tips and advice for improving these skills.

In my own searches I’ve come across a number of podcasts that provide coverage of these specific topics. These podcasts range from covering specific aspects of mastering and mixing music to wider discussions on events and trends in the game industry concerning audio. Today I’ll be sharing a few of my favorite music and audio production podcasts that have helped expand my knowledge of these topics. This is by no means a complete list, but I hope it can be a good jumping off point for anyone else looking to learn more about the audio world. (more…)

The popular video casting service Twitch TV and its earlier incarnation Justin TV has allowed gamers to show off their skills to audiences for many years. Recently Twitch has been expanding the streaming content to include creative streams. Under the Creative category, casters have been live streaming painting, cooking, and even metal work. One of the other emerging types of creative streams has been music production.

There are a number of music artists, composers, and arrangers who have decided to use their Twitch channel to give their fans a behind-the-scenes look at how the music that they love is made. A lot can be learned by observing how a music producer writes, mixes, and arranges music, so streams like these can be valuable tools for other music creators or for fans who want to see the creative process. Today I’ll be highlighting some of the Twitch streams that you can tune into on a regular basis. (more…)

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